Seeing In The Dark?

Tomorrow morning my alarm is again set for Stupid O'Clock.  Actually, that's not true. It's set for Stupid STUPID O'Clock..  But despite this I'm a little bit excited because mid afternoon I received an email telling me that I will be able to see in the dark, and a swift trip across town at 4pm today delivered the item I've been hoping to trial during this trip.

This is of course courtesy of the truly ace Jeremy who's juggled things about to give me a look at a pretty lovely looking bit of gear.  After we got home I had a little play inside with the Bad Ass Maxie.  I thought the images were really impressive.  I'd show you a few, if only the RAW files weren't being held hostage by Adobe as I try to work out how to download and install the latest version of Camera Raw.  Tbhis was a good reminder for me to set the camera to shoot and RAW + JPG image so that the images I take tomorrow won't also be held hostage while I sort out what I need to download and how to do this..

Happy Days???  Hopefully so.... Because you see this is the thing.  Even thought it involves getting up at an insanely early hour of the day, there's a thrill I get each and every time I get up early to photograph a horse at trackwork.  There's something about getting my camera bag ready the night before so that it sits waiting by the door.  Having my clothes ready to put on.  The stupid and restless sleep that I always seem to have.  The sneaking around trying desperately hard not to wake anyone up.  The drive in the dark (not so good if I've had a terrible night!), the smell of the stable as I arrive.  The sound of horses when I can hear but not see them.  And the challenge of trying to produce an image in light conditions that are best described as non existent!  Can you understand any of this?  I hope so.  It makes me tick.....

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Joyous Family

Image
Another famous and successful thoroughbred family that I have a reasonably complete library of is the family of the champion racemare, More Joyous.  She is a bay mare, foaled in 2005, which makes her a year older than Black Caviar. More Joyous is by the great American black stallion (and one of "my Boys") More Than Ready.  She's out of the Sunday Silence mare Sunday Joy, who was out of the grand broodmare Joie Denise (who died not all that long ago). Sunday Joy won the AJC Oaks in and is a half sister to Tuesday Joy. All 4 mares were/are owned by John Singleton and reside at his gorgeous Strawberry Hills Farm at Mt White, NSW. More Joyous and Nash Rawiller.  Futurity Stakes, on Blue Diamond Day.  26 February 2011.  One of my favourite images of the great mare. More Joyous, like her contemporary Black Caviar, is now closer to the end of her career than the beginning. But it is one I've chronicled in a similar fashion to the way I have documented the
Read more

The Legacy of Eight Carat: From the Vault Volume I

Image
We have been back in lockdown here in Victoria. Lockdown 5.0 to be precise and as a result it made us go back to feeling like sad sacks.  After having seen off Lockdown 4.0 a teeny tiny bit triumphantly, where we saw off both Delta and Kappa variants (evil beasts that they are - curse you stinky COVID - curse you), we had literally only just gotten back to work before being very suddenly plunged back into Lockdown 5.0 after the visit of those very nice removalists.   'Thanks very much!!!!' we all shouted indignantly!!!!  A key difference with Lockdown 5.0 was that half the country also into lockdown at the same time which made us feel slightly less sad.  The Victorian Government doesn't muck about anymore when it comes to outbreaks.  Their reaction is swift and severe and not at all namby pamby.  I just wish the same logic would be applied to Sydney which continues to deteriorate, much to my dismay.  This week we took our first tentative steps out of Lockdown 5.0, hurrah f
Read more

The physical drain of riding horses

Image
Most people agree that the life of a jockey is a difficult one.  There are a handful that rise to the top, and do extremely well out of the Sport of Kings.  The vast majority however struggle with their weights, and do their best to avoid and/or overcome injury.  Anyone who has ever been pelted off a horse would know that it doesn't tickle!  And of course the older you get, the more it hurts!  We used to fang around on our ponies, bareback, in headstalls and leadropes, never wearing a riding hat.  Completely fearless, and I am sure that on the odd occasion I parted company with my horse, I used to bounce.  In fact I rarely used to fall off, unless the horse came down as well, I guess all those years of galloping around bareback meant my balance and ability to swing my body with the horse was pretty good.  I'd like to say that I could still ride the same, but age and the maturing mind catches up, and you start thinking of the consequences of 'what if I come off', which
Read more